Su Yu nodded as Fang Jiong spoke up: “This is a defensive ability, after the battle yesterday, I realise the importance of having one. If I had chosen a defensive ability, I wouldn’t have suffered so much yesterday.”

As their tiers increased, the abilities of the other party would become more and more frightening, having a defensive ability was becoming very important.

The Protective Bulwark was unharmed and it was actually Zhang Zhongmou who exclaimed, the Red Lotus Sword had been bounced out of his hand.

“Ahhhh! Damn that’s painful!” Zhang Zhongmou had used too much strength, the rebound was immense and the webbing between his thumb and index finger had actually torn.

Su Yu was stunned for a moment, he did not expect the Protective Bulwark to be so sturdy, he was immediately elated but Fang Jiong who was by the side shook his head: “This brother has his strange energy concentrated mostly within his face, he doesn’t have much strength. Although the sword is sharp, it cannot break through your Protective Bulwark. If it were a tier four expert together with this sword, that would be a different story.”

Su Yu swiftly calmed down, his Protective Bulwark was to be used against experts, Zhang Zhongmou was only at tier two and his hands did not contain any strange energy, asking him to try was not getting a very good representation of the strength of the Protective Bulwark. Being able to block the Red Lotus Sword in his hands did not mean that it could defend against the powerful attacks of other tier four dark iron warriors.

“Brother Fang, why don’t you assist me to test it.” Su Yu recalled that Fang Jiong was also a tier four expert.

Fang Jiong laughed as he stood up, he was 1.92 metres tall, when he stood up he gave one a feeling of pressure.

The opponent had switched to Fang Jiong and Su Yu did not dare to be careless, his two arms immediately straightened as black scales covered them, protecting his arms and chest within the black scales.

Fang Jiong flexed his arms before picking up the butcher’s knife from the ground: “My ability is to allow any object I use to become a part of my body, turning it into a weapon.” As he said this, his right hand seemed to emit a black coloured fluctuation, this light spread to the butcher’s knife, immediately shrouding it within.

“Careful, this butcher’s knife which has been strengthened by my strange energy isn’t some ordinary butcher’s knife!” Fang Jiong howled as he suddenly moved forward, the butcher’s knife within his hand chopping heavily towards Su Yu.

“Hua la!”

An explosive noise rang out, this noise was extremely piercing, a moment later, Fang Jiong and Su Yu were groaning as the butcher’s knife bounced out of Fang Jiong’s hand while Su Yu’s Protective Bulwark was shattered.

Su Yu took a step back, he was dazed as he looked at his right hand, his face a mask of concentration.
Fang Jiong’s blow had not been done with all his strength, however, the blow had been able to shatter the Protective Bulwark. The Protective Bulwark was an ability that was solely used for defense, if it were to shatter so easily against an opponent of the same tier, then this defensive ability was really too frail.

Su Yu nodded, his mind swiftly replaying the butcher’s knife chopping down on his Protective Bulwark, thinking back as to how his strange energy was distributed and which portion of it had started to shatter first, thereafter he would try to improve it.

Fang Jiong noticed that Su Yu had fallen into deep thought and did not disturb him, rescinding his strange energy as he sat back down.

Zhang Zhongmou threw him a bag of food as Fang Jiong took out a piece of bread, biting into it as he sighed: “It’s a pity that the conditions here aren’t suitable, otherwise, I can let all of you have a taste of my culinary skills.” Speaking about the culinary arts, the eyes of this person who was a super chef immediately began to shine.

Suddenly, Su Yu who was by the side jumped up: “Brother Fang, let’s go at it again.”

Fang Jiong laughed: “Alright.” wielding his butcher’s knife as he stood up, chopping down once again.

Su Yu’s right hand extended as the Protective Bulwark appeared.

“Keng!”

This time, the butcher’s knife was repelled but Su Yu’s Protective Bulwark was left unharmed.

Su Yu was beginning to feel elated but the Protective Bulwark suddenly began to shatter.

“Still not good enough, that’s weird.” Su Yu hugged his head as he sat down, falling into deep contemplation once again.

A short while later, Su Yu found Fang Jiong to test once again, each time he would understand a little more of the technique and would find a way to make it even stronger. After several improvements, Fang Jiong chopped down four to five times but was repelled each time, leaving no damage on the Protective Bulwark.

“Success! So impressive master Yu!” Zhang Zhongmou who was by the side shouted.

Fang Jiong also lifted his thumb at Su Yu before laughing: “Not bad, I can’t shatter your shield with a normal chop. Let me try to use my abilities now, if you are still able to guard it, it can then be considered a perfect defense.” Fang Jiong’s competitive spirit had been aroused.

Su Yu nodded, his left hand pressing on his right shoulder as the Protective Bulwark appeared once again, a jet black light was swirling above it.

The butcher’s knife was dangling within Fang Jiong’s hands as he slowly lifted it up, his left hand moved to grab the knife, wielding it with his two hands before suddenly roaring out. With his chest as the source, streaks of black undulations began to extend outwards, shrouding his arms and chest within, the butcher’s knife within his hand extended rapidly to about a two foot long blade that was radiating with black ripples.

“Steel Shattering Cleave!” Fang Jiang stomped as he roared, his figure that was 1.92 metres tall was covered in black undulations as it heavily smashed onto Su Yu’s Protective Bulwark.

“Chi!”

Su Yu groaned as he retreated just in the nick of time, the Protective Bulwark within his hands had been shattered like tofu, if he had been slightly slower, it was likely that he would have been injured.

Who knew that the reworked Protective Bulwark would also fall in a single blow, Su Yu could not help but depressedly sigh, being able to change the Protective Bulwark to such a level was already his current limit, wanting to further improve it was already an extremely difficult matter because he felt that the Protective Bulwark was already at a near perfect state, why couldn’t it defend against the attack?

“Hahaha!” Fang Jiong noticed Su Yu’s forlorn expression as he laughed: “Don’t be depressed, that was my strongest ability, I had to gather all my energy before barely breaking your shield, if it were a real battle, I may not have the time to prepare such a blow.”

Su Yu shook his head as he kept silent for a moment, he seemed to think of something as he smiled: “One more time, use the Steel Shattering Cleave again.” thereafter, he immediately activated the Protective Bulwark again.

“Even if we go at it one more time, the result will be the same.” Fang Jiong was extremely confident in his Steel Shattering Cleave, although the defensive prowess of Su Yu’s upgraded Protective Bulwark was astonishing, he was the same tier as Su Yu and if a blow that contained all his might was unable to break the shield, that would be too ridiculous.

Fang Jiong did not hesitate as he immediate gathered all his energy, activating the Steel Shattering Cleave once again as ripples of black light started to converge and formed a blade shape that chopped towards Su Yu’s shield.

Almost at the same time, Su Yu secretly used the drop of Golden Blood contained within his right thumb, inserting a portion of the energy into the shield.

This was an idea that had just filled his mind, he wanted to try using the Golden Blood to aid the Protective Bulwark, using a portion of its energy to supplement it.

The outcome was swiftly decided, the Protective Bulwark which had a layer of black light above it suddenly had streaks of golden meshed within, thereafter, Fang Jiong groaned as the black coloured blade form immediately shattered upon contact, he seemed as though he had been struck by lightning, swaying as he almost fell to the ground.

“What happened?” Fang Jiong was shocked, earlier he had suddenly felt a frightening energy fluctuation from the Protective Bulwark which had instantly shattered his blade form, directly shocking his body causing him to feel as though he had been shocked by lightning, he could not help but sway as he backed away, like as if he was drunk on alcohol.

Su Yu smiled as he rescinded the energy from the Golden Blood, the black scales on his body disappeared, returning back to normal.

Fang Jiong was suspicious as he looked at Su Yu before bitterly laughing: “You are really impressive, really.” Su Yu had just reached the tier four stage but had already improvised his ability, causing Fang Jiong’s strongest blow to be bounced back, such a shocking performance made Fang Jiong really respect him, it was no wonder the black clothed male had died in Su Yu’s hands.

The newcomers to the group like Liu Zheng, Xie Zhiming, Xue Shan and the others noticed this, they were sure that Su Yu who did not often stand out was definitely the real expert.

This night was calm without any incidents, when the sky became bright again the group kept their belongings before continuing on their journey. Qin Jiagui held the map as he constantly compared it to the terrain, his brows were in a constant frown because the map seemed to have slight changes after a night had passed.

Following the undulating mountain road, the group managed to finally bypass the sheer cliff, finally seeing a mountain.

The mountain peak was not high, like a short fat person, but it encompassed an extremely large area of land. Upon seeing this mountain, Qin Jiagui breathed out: “This is the place, based on the map, the exit is somewhere on this mountain.

The group felt their hearts shiver for a moment before becoming suspicious, how could the exit be on a mountain? They felt that this was rather strange, however, they were happy at a change of scenery after being cooped up in the forest for so long. Although it was merely a small mountain, it still gave one a refreshing feeling, at least they did not need to see the numbing vision of green anymore.

Qin Jiagui nodded before checking the directions again and muttering irresolutely to himself. Thereafter they winded around a mound where they saw an odd, short and stout tree. On both sides there were inclined surface of the mountain, and on the mountain wall itself there was various kinds of plants and vines. It appears that no one has ever traversed across this area before.

“It should be here, let’s go.” Qin Jiagui walked past the strange short and thick tree as the group of sixteen began to slowly walk towards the mountain.

The mountain road was extremely tough, the group struggled to move forward, it was fortunate that everyone had strange energy within their bodies, Zhao Shichang and Zhang Zhongmou continued to open a path forward while Qin Jiagui continually inspected the terrain, pointing a direction for them to move in. This mountain road undulated and constantly twisted and turned, finally, the group stopped because there was no path ahead of them.

Qin Jiagui looked at the map before inspecting the terrain, his expression seemed rather rigid.

A valley was in front of them, the valley was filled with all sorts of green vines and shrubs, there were also the strange short and thick trees earlier. Atop these strange trees were vines, one simply could not see any exit and the reason for Qin Jiagui’s rigid expression was because, based on the map, the exit was supposed to be here.

“Qin Jiagui, where’s the exit? There isn’t any path to continue on.” Zhang Zhongmou stabbed the Red Lotus Sword into the ground beside him as he looked at him with a puzzled expression.

The area ahead was a dead end, there was simply no path forward, however, why did the map indicate that the exit was here? Qin Jiagui was puzzled as he muttered: “How could it be like this……. The map clearly indicates that the exit is here…… even if it isn’t an exit, there should at least be something else here…… how could……. It be a dead end…….”

The expressions of the others immediately became forlorn and disappointed.

The exit on the map was their only driving force and hope that they had held onto throughout the journey in the forest, suddenly losing this, this blow was simply unimaginable.

Lei Rui suddenly interjected: “Maybe the exit is hidden, so many trees and vines are before us, if there really is an exit, could it be blocked by the vegetation?”

“That’s right.” Qin Jiagui’s spirit was raised: “It could be that the exit is blocked, everyone, let’s first clear up the vegetation.

“Okay!” Zhao Shichang was the first to act, waving his right hand as the bone blade went forward. Actually, everyone had a bad feeling in their hearts, however, this was already their last hope and they could only assure themselves that the exit must have been hidden.

Zhao Shichang was the first to rush forward, Zhang Zhongmou followed closely with his Red Lotus Sword, Ma Ziye used the Star Blade, the entire group went forward to clear up the vegetation, hoping to find an exit.

Qin Jiagui stared at the map as he muttered: “It’s clearly here……. It should be here……. exit, where’s the exit…….”